Enviado por: Arnaud and the team
Data: 18 de junho de 2020
Giant Armadillo Conservation Program June 2020
Dear Friends,
For almost all of us, the Covid-19 virus continues to impact aspects of daily life. In addition to the loss of life caused by the Pandemic, in Brazil, we have been horrified by the continued devastation of the environment. The government continues to change policies, regulations and deliberately ignore invasions of indigenous lands and parks. It is heartbreaking, and senseless. The Pandemic has raised serious questions about the way in which we interact with and relate to Nature. Will we never learn?
I know that many of our close partners are coping with the consequences of having to close their parks and that very tough decisions made. I know overall many people are facing a very difficult moment. In the midst of this, we recognize more than ever the importance of building emotional resilience, and the need for uplifting news to help maintain morale. This is the purpose of this update. We want to demonstrate to our supporters and friends that more than ever we are focused on our mission. Thanks to your support we continue achieving positive milestones for biodiversity conservation.
I am especially excited to share with you a small conservation victory for giant armadillos. A new law for economic and ecological zoning has been recently published for the municipality of Campo Grande (Lei N. 6.407, http://www.campogrande.ms.gov.br/planurb/zoneamento-ecologico-economico-de-campo-grande-zeecg/ ). This new law is a legal instrument for territorial management to be used in decision making of what activities can take place where. The data we collected on the distribution and presence of the giant armadillo has been used to highlight what areas are important for conservation. In this way, the giant armadillo is truly acting as flagship species for biodiversity conservation. A species that 10 years ago few people knew even existed is now influencing habitat conservation. This is the result of the work we conducted after wining and receiving the funding from Whitley Fund for Nature Award in 2015. We are continuing to lobby so that similar laws are passed in the 28 other municipalities of Mato Grosso do Sul where we have mapped the distribution of the giant armadillo.
I am truly happy, and very proud of this accomplishment; however, I am very aware that we still have a very long way to go for this to be expanded in each municipality. This milestone, highlights the importance of long-term projects, that continued communication and lobbying with stakeholders is key to success and that just data collection is not enough. Finally this hightlights something so appropriate for these challenging times: the importance of never giving up!! A big thank you to all of you for your continued support these past five years for helping to make this happen.
In May we returned to the Pantanal, where due to the annual floods we had been absent since February. Only team members are participating in expeditions as we are all isolating and very careful. This means that all our capacity building activities have been put on hold which is a shame. We have received a lot of disappointed emails.. I am relieved to say that all our animals are doing well and have been located. We recaptured an adult female (Tex) for a routine health exam, but did not place a GPS on her. We only have a few GPS units as we have not been able to travel to the US to pick up the equipment for this year. Currently, the USA borders are closed to anyone having been in Brazil in the past 14 days as the virus is out of control here.
After weeks of staying home it was wonderful being in the Pantanal and outdoors. The Pantanal is truly an incredible place, teeming with wildlife and beautiful diverse landscapes. Best of all, monitoring our animals, seeing their tracks, carved up termite mounds and even just the wonderful smell that emanates from their burrows felt to me like being on a constant Prozac drip the whole time! Have I ever mentioned how much I love giant armadillos? Have I???
We also have fantastic news from our giant anteaters! During the first week of May, four of our females gave birth! Currently six out of our seven females have pups on their backs! Monitoring them has never been more fun. We have a post doc student who is supposed to study maternal behavior, however due to the Pandemic her work had to be put on hold. We cannot wait for this study to start, and we are so pleased to see that our giant anteaters are doing so well. This baby boom will be great for a new project we are starting. Our veterinarian Amanda Alves is leading a new initiative which will also greatly benefit from the help of giant anteaters under human care.
Identification of individuals is extremely important for many research questions including density and longevity studies. One of the non-invasive methods used is the identification through morphological patterns, such as pigmentation of the pelage, skin, feathers or scales. For several species, this is a consolidated method, but for giant anteaters, this is a technique that is still relatively little explored. It has been done with adults, but
never with pups or juveniles. We have therefore established an individual identification protocol for giant anteaters. The objective of this research is to evaluate whether the pelage pattern in giant anteaters is maintained throughout their growth from pups, juveniles to adults. This could be an important tool for population studies. If you know of any pups under human care please let me know!
I do have some bad news to share. Since the Pandemic started, one of our anteaters had started crossing the highway. We believe that one of the impacts of the Pandemic and decrease in activity has also been a decrease in activity on the highway which may have turned this female bolder. Our worst fears confirmed themselves and Vitoria was killed on the highway. A necropsy revealed that she was pregnant.
Back to good news, we tested the VetScan donated by the Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens in the field, both in the Pantanal (armadillo) and Cerrado (Anteater). We also started using two quick test for parvovirus and distemper which Danilo Kluyber can tell you more about if you have any questions. Speaking of Danilo, he organized with the whole team an online-week-long course for 200 students on: Ecology, health, environmental education and conservation of armadillos and anteaters in Brazil. It was a huge success, with students from all over Brazil. He is currently preparing another edition for this course. This is a wonderful example of our team adapting and making the most of the reality during the Pandemic to continue our capacity building mission.
Other good news, is that yesterday we learned that we will be granted special permission by the Rio Doce State Park to change our camera trap batteries and disks. We had been trying to get this permission for weeks so that we do not lose too much data. Hopefully, we will be able to get back to work soon in the Park.
We have now learned to work virtually with stakeholders and partners and are making great progress on many other fronts. Our new education website is progressing very well and Andreia Figueiredo (our educator) has been able to hold several virtual meetings to get feedback for school teachers. I have also held many meetings with government officials, beekeepers, beekeeper associations and the federation of beepers as well as Wildlife Friendly Enterprises and we are making great progress on the Giant armadillo friendly honey certification. Finally, we continue to work hard on data analysis and publications and have submitted several manuscripts this month.
I hope I have fulfilled the objective of this quick update to provide uplifting news to help maintain morale. We continue to be focused our mission, and once again are more than happy to help any of you by making virtual presentations, participate in live chats or answer any questions. Please let us know if there are any materials you need from us so that you too can share good news and help create the emotional resilience, we need to
get through this.
All the best from Brazil,
Arnaud and team.
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Juvenile anteater Dan with his first collar. (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
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Remains of Vitória and her baby roadkilled (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
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-
We have now test kits for Parvovirose and cinomose (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
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Sheron and her new baby (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
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Amanda and Dan the juvenile giant anteater we are monitoring (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
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Meeting with Sr. Tião, the first Arnaud’s teacher in the Pantanal (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
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Sheron before her birth (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
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Releasing Tex giant armadillo (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
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Gabriel looking inside of Tex giant armadillo burrow (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
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Gabriel Massocato placing camera trap in front of Sara giant armadillo burrow (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
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Releasing Tex giant armadillo (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
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Danilo, testing the vet scan (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
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Sunset behind Jabiru stork (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
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-
Veterinarians during the giant armadillo procedure in the field (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
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Debora using the VetScan in the field (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
CONTEÚDO EXCLUSIVO – ENVIADO POR
ICAS (INSTITUTO DE CONSERVAÇÃO DE ANIMAIS SILVESTRES). Acesso em https://www.giantarmadillo.org/; Enviado em 01 de maio de 2020.
Fotos por: ICAS (INSTITUTO DE CONSERVAÇÃO DE ANIMAIS SILVESTRES)
Gostaria de juntar-se a Beautiful Brazil e ajudar a divulgar as belezas de nosso pais?
Entre em contato (CLICANDO AQUI!)
Dear Friends,
For almost all of us, the Covid-19 virus continues to impact aspects of daily life. In addition to the loss of life caused by the Pandemic, in Brazil, we have been horrified by the continued devastation of the environment. The government continues to change policies, regulations and deliberately ignore invasions of indigenous lands and parks. It is heartbreaking, and senseless. The Pandemic has raised serious questions about the way in which we interact with and relate to Nature. Will we never learn?
I know that many of our close partners are coping with the consequences of having to close their parks and that very tough decisions made. I know overall many people are facing a very difficult moment. In the midst of this, we recognize more than ever the importance of building emotional resilience, and the need for uplifting news to help maintain morale. This is the purpose of this update. We want to demonstrate to our supporters and friends that more than ever we are focused on our mission. Thanks to your support we continue achieving positive milestones for biodiversity conservation.
I am especially excited to share with you a small conservation victory for giant armadillos. A new law for economic and ecological zoning has been recently published for the municipality of Campo Grande (Lei N. 6.407, http://www.campogrande.ms.gov.br/planurb/zoneamento-ecologico-economico-de-campo-grande-zeecg/ ). This new law is a legal instrument for territorial management to be used in decision making of what activities can take place where. The data we collected on the distribution and presence of the giant armadillo has been used to highlight what areas are important for conservation. In this way, the giant armadillo is truly acting as flagship species for biodiversity conservation. A species that 10 years ago few people knew even existed is now influencing habitat conservation. This is the result of the work we conducted after wining and receiving the funding from Whitley Fund for Nature Award in 2015. We are continuing to lobby so that similar laws are passed in the 28 other municipalities of Mato Grosso do Sul where we have mapped the distribution of the giant armadillo.
I am truly happy, and very proud of this accomplishment; however, I am very aware that we still have a very long way to go for this to be expanded in each municipality. This milestone, highlights the importance of long-term projects, that continued communication and lobbying with stakeholders is key to success and that just data collection is not enough. Finally this hightlights something so appropriate for these challenging times: the importance of never giving up!! A big thank you to all of you for your continued support these past five years for helping to make this happen.
In May we returned to the Pantanal, where due to the annual floods we had been absent since February. Only team members are participating in expeditions as we are all isolating and very careful. This means that all our capacity building activities have been put on hold which is a shame. We have received a lot of disappointed emails.. I am relieved to say that all our animals are doing well and have been located. We recaptured an adult female (Tex) for a routine health exam, but did not place a GPS on her. We only have a few GPS units as we have not been able to travel to the US to pick up the equipment for this year. Currently, the USA borders are closed to anyone having been in Brazil in the past 14 days as the virus is out of control here.
After weeks of staying home it was wonderful being in the Pantanal and outdoors. The Pantanal is truly an incredible place, teeming with wildlife and beautiful diverse landscapes. Best of all, monitoring our animals, seeing their tracks, carved up termite mounds and even just the wonderful smell that emanates from their burrows felt to me like being on a constant Prozac drip the whole time! Have I ever mentioned how much I love giant armadillos? Have I???
We also have fantastic news from our giant anteaters! During the first week of May, four of our females gave birth! Currently six out of our seven females have pups on their backs! Monitoring them has never been more fun. We have a post doc student who is supposed to study maternal behavior, however due to the Pandemic her work had to be put on hold. We cannot wait for this study to start, and we are so pleased to see that our giant anteaters are doing so well. This baby boom will be great for a new project we are starting. Our veterinarian Amanda Alves is leading a new initiative which will also greatly benefit from the help of giant anteaters under human care.
Identification of individuals is extremely important for many research questions including density and longevity studies. One of the non-invasive methods used is the identification through morphological patterns, such as pigmentation of the pelage, skin, feathers or scales. For several species, this is a consolidated method, but for giant anteaters, this is a technique that is still relatively little explored. It has been done with adults, but
never with pups or juveniles. We have therefore established an individual identification protocol for giant anteaters. The objective of this research is to evaluate whether the pelage pattern in giant anteaters is maintained throughout their growth from pups, juveniles to adults. This could be an important tool for population studies. If you know of any pups under human care please let me know!
I do have some bad news to share. Since the Pandemic started, one of our anteaters had started crossing the highway. We believe that one of the impacts of the Pandemic and decrease in activity has also been a decrease in activity on the highway which may have turned this female bolder. Our worst fears confirmed themselves and Vitoria was killed on the highway. A necropsy revealed that she was pregnant.
Back to good news, we tested the VetScan donated by the Naples Zoo at Caribbean Gardens in the field, both in the Pantanal (armadillo) and Cerrado (Anteater). We also started using two quick test for parvovirus and distemper which Danilo Kluyber can tell you more about if you have any questions. Speaking of Danilo, he organized with the whole team an online-week-long course for 200 students on: Ecology, health, environmental education and conservation of armadillos and anteaters in Brazil. It was a huge success, with students from all over Brazil. He is currently preparing another edition for this course. This is a wonderful example of our team adapting and making the most of the reality during the Pandemic to continue our capacity building mission.
Other good news, is that yesterday we learned that we will be granted special permission by the Rio Doce State Park to change our camera trap batteries and disks. We had been trying to get this permission for weeks so that we do not lose too much data. Hopefully, we will be able to get back to work soon in the Park.
We have now learned to work virtually with stakeholders and partners and are making great progress on many other fronts. Our new education website is progressing very well and Andreia Figueiredo (our educator) has been able to hold several virtual meetings to get feedback for school teachers. I have also held many meetings with government officials, beekeepers, beekeeper associations and the federation of beepers as well as Wildlife Friendly Enterprises and we are making great progress on the Giant armadillo friendly honey certification. Finally, we continue to work hard on data analysis and publications and have submitted several manuscripts this month.
I hope I have fulfilled the objective of this quick update to provide uplifting news to help maintain morale. We continue to be focused our mission, and once again are more than happy to help any of you by making virtual presentations, participate in live chats or answer any questions. Please let us know if there are any materials you need from us so that you too can share good news and help create the emotional resilience, we need to
get through this.
All the best from Brazil,
Arnaud and team.
-
- Juvenile anteater Dan with his first collar. (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
-
- Remains of Vitória and her baby roadkilled (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
-
- We have now test kits for Parvovirose and cinomose (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
-
- Sheron and her new baby (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
-
- Amanda and Dan the juvenile giant anteater we are monitoring (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
-
- Meeting with Sr. Tião, the first Arnaud’s teacher in the Pantanal (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
-
- Sheron before her birth (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
-
- Releasing Tex giant armadillo (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
-
- Gabriel looking inside of Tex giant armadillo burrow (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
-
- Gabriel Massocato placing camera trap in front of Sara giant armadillo burrow (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
-
- Releasing Tex giant armadillo (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
-
- Danilo, testing the vet scan (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
-
- Sunset behind Jabiru stork (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
-
- Veterinarians during the giant armadillo procedure in the field (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
-
- Debora using the VetScan in the field (Foto por: ICAS (Instituto de Conservação de Animais Silvestres))
CONTEÚDO EXCLUSIVO – ENVIADO POR
ICAS (INSTITUTO DE CONSERVAÇÃO DE ANIMAIS SILVESTRES). Acesso em https://www.giantarmadillo.org/; Enviado em 01 de maio de 2020.
Fotos por: ICAS (INSTITUTO DE CONSERVAÇÃO DE ANIMAIS SILVESTRES)
ICAS (INSTITUTO DE CONSERVAÇÃO DE ANIMAIS SILVESTRES). Acesso em https://www.giantarmadillo.org/; Enviado em 01 de maio de 2020.
Fotos por: ICAS (INSTITUTO DE CONSERVAÇÃO DE ANIMAIS SILVESTRES)
Gostaria de juntar-se a Beautiful Brazil e ajudar a divulgar as belezas de nosso pais?
Entre em contato (CLICANDO AQUI!)
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